Expanding developer capabilities on its wildly popular code-sharing site, GitHub today reached the 1.0 milestone of its Git LFS (Large File Storage) and unveiled its Integrations Directory for leveraging tools to extend GitHub. The company announced the new technologies at the GitHub Universe conference in San Francisco.

Git LFS is an open source Git extension for integrating large binary files into a Git workflow. "Distributed version control systems like Git have enabled new and powerful workflows but they haven't always been practical for versioning large files," GitHub developer Rick Olson said in a blog post. "Git LFS solves this problem by replacing large files with text pointers inside Git while storing the file contents on a remote server like GitHub.com."

Newly added to Git LFS, which was initially unveiled in April, were a rewritten HTTP client and an API specification to improve concurrency and reduce overhead when transferring thousands of files. It also features a Windows installer and Linux packages. The GitHub LFS client is available at the GitHub website.

With Integrations Directory, GitHub is showcasing developer tools to extend GitHub and the developer workflow. "Quickly find tools that work with GitHub to help you and your team build software together," GitHub Senior Engineer Kyle Daigle said in a blog post. "Connect those tools to GitHub to manage all aspects of your software projects -- from idea to running application in the hands of customers. Browse new integrations to customize your workflow with functionality provided by our partners."

Integrations Directory cites tools like Travis CI, for testing and deployment; Codeship, for continuous integration with Docker support; and Gitter, for collaboration among developers.